Should Teachers be Performers?

• What makes a great teacher? 
• Is it enough for a teacher to simply know, and be able to communicate effectively, a lot of content? 
• Or, Should our best teachers be great performers?   

NPR has taken on this debate with this story about teaching's correlation to performance.
Please listen to it here. 

Full disclosure: I am a self-confessed performer-teacher.  I was most inspired to be a teacher by some of my own teachers, most of whom were amazing performers.  I was lucky enough to have teachers who had a passion for their subject and their craft.  Plus, they were funny,and made me laugh a lot.  These teachers also deeply cared about me, and I wanted to do well for them.

But Dead Poets Society was also my favorite movie during my teen years - and the hilarious performance of Robin William's Mr. Keating made me want to try my hand at it.  And my background is less academic, and way more performance.  I was always an OK student - who mostly did well in subjects that I loved, yet slacked off if I did not care. Instead, I spent most of my youth performing in punk rock bands, and in school plays.  I loved the stage, and teaching absolutely scratches that itch for me.

On my best days, I feel that I use my performance to instill curiosity and buy-in from my students.  In many ways - I am using comedy, music, and laughter to actively sell the study of history as something to believe in.  I teach public school, so my students are not choosing to be in my classroom.  But to really engage them, I need them to believe in what we do, ie: I can not serve the students until they come to the table, so my performance is sometimes a way to make the table seem appealing.  Once we are gathered around that table together - I am better able to engage and instruct.

But does my history in performance make me a better teacher?  Or just it just make me an entertainer?  Can I be both?  And if performance is a key to great teaching - how do we recruit these performers to our profession?

I encourage you, dear readers to post your thoughts on your best teachers in the comments section.  In your experience, what made your best teachers..your best teachers?